


The Myth of Snakes

by miabria



Category: Greek and Roman Mythology
Genre: Class Project, Original Mythology, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-17
Updated: 2019-02-17
Packaged: 2019-10-30 03:24:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17820905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miabria/pseuds/miabria
Summary: Four years ago in my senior year of high school, I took a mythology class in which we were assigned to write our own original myth. I remember thinking to myself, "Snakes are basically just big lizards without feet. How did that happen? And why are there not very many myths involving Eris? She was pretty cool in the Dreamworks movie Sinbad." And thus the lightbulb went off. Without proofreading or editing anything, here is my original myth I wrote nearly four years ago about why snakes don't have legs. Enjoy!





	The Myth of Snakes

Many have felt pity for those poor reptilian creatures we call snakes. They have no arms after all! There’s a story behind their absence of limbs and it starts with Eris.

Eris was the goddess of discord, meaning she absolutely loved chaos on would often spark feuds just for fun. Well, one day, Eris got extremely bored. She was just itching to cause someone turmoil. Being clever and sneaky, she enlisted the help of her friends. After all, why should a goddess have to do all the work herself?

These friends of Eris’ were lizards. Small and nimble, they were the perfect little buggers for causing chaos. In fact, at the time, these tiny lizards were Eris’s sacred animal. She absolutely adored them.

Eris’s plan was simple: Have these nimble little lizard friends steal something from Zeus and watch as he goes into a complete rage. If chaos were to be sparked anywhere, it might as well be on Olympus. Eris, however, didn’t want war, she just wanted to steal something trivial from the king of the gods to see how little it would take for him to go ballistic. With those thoughts in mind, she sent her lizard friends out to work.

Meanwhile on Olympus, Zeus just received a wonderful gift from Dionysus: a basket of grapes fit for the king of the gods. Just as Zeus was about to enjoy his wonderful gift, he saw tiny lizard creatures escaping the throne room with one of his grapes! He became so angry that these pests would dare steal from him! He took away their arms and legs. Now, they would be unable to steal anything ever again.

Zeus was proud of how well he felt with the issue. He promptly sat down on his throne and ate one of his grapes. Zeus’s expression immediately became one of disgust. The grapes Dionysus gave to Zeus were made of wax!

Through some mystical, unknown powers, Hera learned of Zeus’s punishment upon the poor lizard beasts in their stupid attempt to steal from him. She nagged Zeus endlessly until he agreed to fix his mistakes.

Zeus, being the loving husband and lazy jerk he is, only gave half the lizards their arms and legs back. That is why snakes have no arms and lizards still exist.

Eris, however, was not angry with Zeus’s punishment upon her lizard friends. In fact, she was amused. She found these new snake creatures much more terrifying and chaotic than her tiny lizards. She liked them so much, the snake became her new sacred animal and a symbol of chaos.

And Dionysus got zero punishment for his grapes made of wax because Zeus is stupid and forgot about it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading this disaster of a myth. Looking back on old work is really important to me and so is mythology and folk lore. I hope you got at least a little bit of enjoyment out of this. :)


End file.
